Forget electric, the answer is diesel

Originally published: September 29, 2011

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We reporters, like opposition parties, have it made in the shade. With all the entitlements of power but none of its responsibility, we are free to criticize but never have to formulate a solution, or at least any realistic solution. (For instance, the NDP can spout all manner of foolishness secure in the comfort its leader is never getting into 24 Sussex Drive, just as I will never be made head of Toyota Motor Corp.)

Unencumbered with finding an actual solution to problems, I, on the other hand, am free to snipe at car companies with relative impunity.

And snipe I have, my favourite target of late being the technologies chosen on our road to a gasoline-free future. No subject in the automotive world has been hyped by more media or generated such outlandish promises. Yet nothing has really changed. Sales of hybrids are still woefully picayune (despite almost a decade and a half of sales, they account for less than 0.3% of Canada’s automotive makeup), our love of humongous pickups and SUVs remains undiminished (more than 50% of Canadian sales are classified as light trucks) and an electricity-driven roadway is still but a dubious election promise in Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty’s re-election campaign.

For the record — and please forgive this short regress to sniping — it’s all about the money. Mainstream consumers have been eschewing hybrids simply because of the expense. Although more frugal on the road, their reduced fuel consumption hardly ever pays back the elevated sticker prices their complicated technology demands. Pure electric vehicles, meanwhile, are so compromised that consumers would need to buy another car for the days when an overgrown golf cart just won’t do. Even GM’s elegant extended-range solution, the Chevrolet Volt, suffers the same plight as conventional hybrids, costing twice as much as the Cruze it’s based on, which makes payback problematic. Even the spate of plug-in hybrids about to be introduced might not be the solution. Yes, their range will get even better, but will it be enough to offset the price hikes their larger lithium ion batteries demand?

The odd thing is that the solution to reducing our dependence on oil — at least for the short to medium term — has been staring us in the face since the great consumption reduction debate began — diesels. Hardly the darling of the enviroweenie set since they still use pistons to squeeze fossilized dinosaur juice, the diesel, if applied throughout our fleets — including hybrids — nonetheless has the greatest chance of getting North Americans to significantly reduce their fuel consumption without compromise.

That’s doubly true with two recent developments, the first being the ongoing civilization of the once-cranky diesel engine. Thanks to European manufacturers — stand up and take a bow BMW, Mercedes and Volkswagen — the turbodiesel, now fairly common in German offerings, is not just the equal of current gasoline engines but their superior. Diesels are also effective in any size car from micro-sized econobox to ground-pounding sport-ute. And, because they require no special transmissions, exotic metal batteries or high-tension electrical cables, their initial price bump is less than hybrids.

The price difference will be even less if the second development I alluded to bears fruit. Mazda, an unexpected source of diesel innovation, claims that diesel engines need be no more expensive to produce than conventional gasoline motors.

Diesel engines have traditionally operated with fantastically high compression ratios compared with gas engines. While that has all manner of efficiency benefits, it also means their internal parts have traditionally had to be far more robust. Compare two equal displacement engines — Otto cycle and diesel — and the gasoline engine appears almost delicate in comparison. Its parts are smaller and there’s far less metal involved. All that robustness costs money, much of the reason that diesels have commanded a price premium (along with the fact most emanate from high-cost Germany).

But Mazda claims to have made an astounding breakthrough, saying it can make diesels run efficiently with compression ratios similar to gasoline engines. This means diesels can use the same sized internal bits, be built on the same production line and cost roughly the same to produce. In other words, diesels could be offered on a widespread basis with little or no price bump, meaning their miserly fuel consumption would provide an immediate payback.

But the diesel-fication of our fleet need not be restricted to the conventional automobile. Hybrids, too, might be far more effective were their gasoline engines replaced with diesels. Almost all of a hybrid’s fuel consumption advantage is gained in the urban cycle. On the highway, their advantage is far less pronounced since they are essentially powered by the gasoline engine alone. But highway cruising is where the diesel’s miserliness shines particularly bright. A Prius with a small turbodiesel instead of its current 1.8-litre gas engine would surely get far better highway mileage. The fuel consumption of plug-in hybrids would similarly benefit. Even the Chevrolet Volt’s performance would be greatly improved as its one weakness — besides price — is its fuel economy once its lithium ion batteries runs out of electrons and its onboard Ecotec engine takes over the generating duties.

Diesels have long offered an immediate answer to our desire to reduce fuel consumption. They do so with few compromises and, if recent developments filter through the industry at large, with very little price penalty. And in the end, whether environmentalists want to hear it or not, money talks and you-know-what walks.